Ken Smith 6's are probably the most predominant bass I've seeen over the past 5 years or so. I've been playing a lot of Gospel & Christian music shows of late and I get the opportunity to see and talk with many of the bassists, and the Smith really seems to get the nod here in the regional north-east.

MTD's are far less common than the old Tobias basses. I haven't seen any "newer" stuff like Cirrus, Spector, Warwick etc.

It seems like the older Smith stuff is the status symbol for the praise bassists ... if you have it, you're cool. BUT, if you strap it on you better be able to play it. I have to say that my FBB fretless 6 has been pretty well received, as well.

I'm not sure how many 6 string basses Ken Smith has made in his time as a builder, but the in-demand status of his basses is a credit to his beautiful tone. And that status symbol mentality has likely kept the re-sale value of the basses high, as well I know I'd like to have one ........

Yeah, I know what you mean ....... a lot of these players have some pretty serious instruments. My first bigger festival-type show I walked in with an SRX505 and felt completely out of place

But seriously, the Christian/Gospel/Praise community is really terrific .... very open and warm and supportive. It isn't what you're playing or even so much how you play, just the fact that you're there is so greatly appreciated. Realize, too, that many, if not most, of these regional bands do not get paid for playing, so those high-end basses are coming from somewhere ........ prayer does work

I second the idea that you should not worry about what you see others playing. The main thing is that you play and learn to play well. As another poster said, if you have a big Ken Smith, you better be able to play it well! I would, however, try to get a bass with a solid B string. You will need it to keep with all of those keyboards.

I recall some of the "working stiff" Introduce Yourselves profile snippets in recent issues of Bass Player (Joe Nerve was among those snippets) had bassists who played in church but used Ibanez Soundgear or Spector Legend basses. Though there was another praise bassist in there who's main instrument was a Fodera, so...

Tash- gospel/praise music utilizes the low-B quite extensively, so a 5 or 6 string bass with a solid B is a must for gospel/praise music. And IMO, Fender basses generally don't have very good low Bs. Fender makes a killer 4-string, but their 5's are ehhhhh.

Also, if you look at the Roscoe website and click on "owners", you'll see quite a collection of Gospel players who play Roscoes.

***For clarification -- Christian music, Black Gospel, and Praise-and-Worship are each individual genres and radio formats. Bassists in each catagory have their favorite instruments. For example, I don't know if I as a bassist would grab a Warwick to play Black Gospel.

Yes, I did overlook Roscoe in my initial post. I remember seeing the bassist of the Mississippi Mass choir use one around 1995. I used to have a Roscoe, it wasn't real bright, but it had a wonderful B string.

Basso brings up a good point about the different genres .... I guess for clarification I should say that my point of reference would be best described as Baptist Gospel .... although there are multiple genres at the festivals ........

Also, I would agree that Roscoe's would seem to be a pretty cool fit with gospel, kind of surprised that I don't see them at all. The Sad's do show up with some of the contemporary Christian groups ........

I mostly play my Status Retro-Active 'J', but I've played everything I own in church. I play a lot of Wednesday evening services. I leave straight from my day job and head to church. I can leave the Status in the car all day long in 100 degree weather. The graphite neck is impervious to the heat. Yeah, it's little warm when I get there, but other than that it's sounds great.